Knitting machine



May 23, 1939. w. D GORMAN KNITTING MACHINE Filed Aug. 24, 1 956 2 Sheets-Sheet l 70 0 6orma/n4 y 1939- w. D. GORMAN 2,159,266

KNITTING MACHINE Filed Aug. 24, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 i: i I: 25 15 W iiii' Elma/whom Max/MA Patented May 23, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE KNITTING MACHINE Application August 24,

6 Claims.

11) means for holding down the hook ends of the needles which are under the action of the selecting means.

Another object of my invention is to provide means to prevent breakage of needles due to crystallization of their shanks, this being caused at least in some instances by frequent bending to an excessive extent in the process of needle selection.

Referring to the drawings, which are made a part of this application and in which similar reference characters indicate similar parts:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through so much of a dial and cylinder machine as will sufiice to illustrate the subject-matter of my invention,

Fig. 2, a similar view on an enlarged scale.

Fig. 3, a front elevation of a cam forming part of the invention.

Fig. 4, a top view of a section of the cam cap, and

Fig. 5, a bottom plan of the same.

In the drawings, reference character l0 indicates a portion of a needle cylinder having grooves for needles ll, held in place by a spring ring I 2, as usual. The machine also has a dial l3 grooved to hold needles M which are provided with butts l5 and which are, or may be, of conventional character throughout except that they have rather long, flexible ofi'set tails terminating in enlarged or bent-over feet l6. These needles, as hereinafter explained, preferably have a limited capacity to rock by reason of the upward extension of their tails, although I do not limit myself to needles which are permitted to rock or tilt in their bed.

Above the dial there is a dial cam cap, as usual, indicated at I! and provided with a runway l8 for the butts l5 of the dial needles, this runway being bounded by the usual needle cams for such a cam cap, or by any suitable or preferred needle cams. The inner wall of the runway is indicated at 19. Another runway in the cam cap is indicated at 20, this runway including a cam or a plurality of cams for acting on the feet l6 of the needles so as to advance a normally-positioned needle to its full outward position. It will be un- 1936, Serial No. 97,674

derstood that when the needles are retracted to draw stitches they will stay in idle position unless advanced by a cam at the inner side of the runway 23, and that all the dial needles will be so advanced unless something is done to prevent their advance.

For selectively preventing the advance of needles the preferred means consists of one or more wheels mounted on the dial cam cap and preferably located in a plane which is vertical and which, in each instance, subtends a chord of an arc of the circle which is the periphery of the dial. Each wheel is mounted on a bridge 2| across an opening in the dial cam cap at 22, held in place by screws 23 preferably passing through elongated slots in the end members of the bridge to provide for adjustment of the bridge. The bridge comprises a sleeve 24 on which is mounted a vertically adjustable post 26, held by a screw which may also hold the post against angular movement. The hub 28 of the wheel 25 is journaled on a horizontal stud extending from post 25. As shown in Fig. 2, the wheel includes disks 29 and 36 constructed to hold between them inserts 3i spaced apart by the usual teeth 32 for engaging the needles to rotate the wheel. The inserts act selectively on the shanks of the needles at their tail portions to flex and rock the needles.

As here shown the inserts engage the tails just back of the angular offsets at 33 and force the tails down to the bottom of the slots in which the needles are respectively mounted. To prevent the needles from rising at their hook ends iere is provided means comprising a cam 34 at each feed, secured to the cam can by a screw 35 passing through an elongated slot at 36 (Fig. 3) in the stem 3'! of the cam to permit vertical adjustment of the cam as desired.

Cam 34 may be arranged to hold the dial needles down at the bottom of their slots, as at the right and left of Fig. 3. It is found preferable, however, to make the tails of the needles stiff enough so that the continued frequent bending of the tails to the extent then necessary will in time cause the shanks thereof to become crystallized so that they will break and interrupt the operation of the machine. To obviate such crystallization it is desirable to relieve the cam 30 approximately at the lowest point of the wheel and to some distance at each side thereof, as indicated in Fig. 3 at 33, so that when a needle is flexed to move its tail from the full line position of Fig. 2 to the dotted line position the hook end will not remain in the full line position but will rise to a limited extent, as indicated by the dotted line position of the hook end of the needle in Fig. 2 and by the group of three needles near the middle of the series in Fig. 3. I

The advancing cam 39 (Fig. 5) normally advances all of the dial needles by acting on feet l6 and they are retracted by stitch cam 40, acting on butts Hi. If only part of the dial needles are to knit the wheel 25 is provided with inserts suitably positioned to cause the tails of needles that are not to take part in the knitting operation to be forced out of the way of cam 39, preferably by a combination of flexing and tilting 0r rocking as already described, and such needles will remain in idle position while the remaining needles take yarn and knit.

The cam 39 is reduced in thickness at 4| to provide a gradual incline against which the feet l6 of iclled needles ride gradually upward so as not to snap back suddenly to the full line position of Fig. 2.

For nullifying the action of the selector wheel I provide a cam 42, pivoted at 43, and connected by a link 44 to a ring 45. The ring 45 can be oscillated about the axis of the machine by any suitable means for moving the cam from the idle position shown in Fig, 5 to an active position wherein it extends outward so far as to advance all the dial needles to tuck position before they reach the wheel 25. Thereafter, even if a. needle tail is acted on by the wheel to deflect its needle to the dotted line position of Fig. 2, the needle will knit because it will be fully advanced by cam 39, and therefore all dial needles will knit at a feed when the cam 42 is advanced. When cam 42 is in the position shown in Fig. 5, de-

flected needles are released at a time when their feet are underneath the cam 39. When cam 42 is in its outward position the tails are depressed at the same point in the needle circle, but when they are released their feet are not underneath the cam 39 but in a position for engagement by said cam to complete their advance to knitting position.

It will be understood that, While the devices herein shown are intended primarily for use in a multiple feed dial and cylinder knitting machine, they may be used Wholly or in part in other .machines and other situations.

It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the specific means shown in the drawings and described in the specification. For example, integral wheels having teeth out in their peripheral portions may be used instead of wheels with interchangeable inserts, as shown, and many other variations will occur to those skilled in the art, all without departing from the spirit of the invention; therefore I do not limit myself to the particular embodiment shown and described, but only as required by the state of the art.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a knitting machine, a dial, a series of knitting needles therein having butts and flexible tails, a stitch cam acting on said butts, needle advancing means acting on said tails, means for flexing said tails selectively out of the path of said advancing means until they have passed the advancing cam edge thereof, and a nullifying cam positioned to engage such tails and toadvance the needles to a point where their tails will engage said cam edge when released by said selective flexing means.

2. A device as in claim 1, said advancing means comprising a flat cam having a needle advancing edge, said cam progressively decreasing in thickness rearwardly from said edge so as to return needle tails engaging its face gradually to normal position.

3. In a knitting machine, a needle dial, needles therein having butts and elongated tails, a stitch cam for acting on said butts, an advancing cam adapted to engage the tails of said needles for moving their butts into the field of action of said stitch cam, means arranged to depress the said tails selectively out of reach of said advancing cam, and a cam for holding down the hook ends of the needles, said cam being relieved to permit limited rocking of the needles when their tails are so moved.

4. In a knitting machine, a needle dial, needles therein having butts and flexible tails, a stitch cam for engaging said butts, an advancing cam for engaging the tails of idle needles to move them into the field of operation of said stitch cam, selective means for flexing the tailsof needles out of reach of said advancing cam, and a cam for holding down the hook ends of needles whose tails are engaged by said selective means, said cam being relieved to permit limited rocking movement of said needles as their tails are flexed.

5. In a knitting machine, a needle dial, needles therein having butts and flexible tails, a stitch cam for engaging said butts, means for engaging the tails of the needles to advance the needles into the field of operation of the stitch cam, means for controlling the action of said last-named means on the needles, said controlling means comprising a design wheel, and a cam arranged to hold down the hook ends of needles engaged by said wheel, said cam being relieved adjacent the lower part of said wheel to permit limited rocking of such needles. 6. In a knitting machine, a needle dial, needles therein having butts and flexible tails, a stitch cam for engaging said butts, means for engaging the tails of the needles to advance the: needles into 

